The Levy Library Blog

Article in the Spotlight: March 2020

Each month Levy Library showcases the achievements of Mount Sinai faculty and researchers by highlighting an article and its altmetrics. Altmetrics are alternative measures of impact that capture non-traditional data like abstract views, article downloads, and social media activity. Our altmetrics data is provided by the PlumX platform. 

This month we highlight: CT Imaging Features of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV). This article was written in part by Xueyan Mei (Biomedical Sciences) and Yang Yang (Radiology).

SUMMARY

The 2019 novel coronavirus manifests with characteristic chest CT imaging features, which are helpful to the radiologist for the early detection and diagnosis of this emerging global health emergency.

KEY RESULTS

• Of 21 patients with the 2019 novel coronavirus, 15 (71%) had involvement of more than two lobes at chest CT, 12 (57%) had ground-glass opacities, seven (33%) had opacities with a rounded morphology, seven (33%) had a peripheral distribution of disease, six (29%) had consolidation with ground-glass opacities, and four (19%) had crazy-paving pattern.
• Lung cavitation, discrete pulmonary nodules, pleural effusions, and lymphadenopathy were absent.
• Fourteen percent of patients (three of 21) presented with a normal CT scan.

ABSTRACT

In this retrospective case series, chest CT scans of 21 symptomatic patients from China infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) were reviewed, with emphasis on identifying and characterizing the most common findings. Typical CT findings included bilateral pulmonary parenchymal ground-glass and consolidative pulmonary opacities, sometimes with a rounded morphology and a peripheral lung distribution. Notably, lung cavitation, discrete pulmonary nodules, pleural effusions, and lymphadenopathy were absent. Follow-up imaging in a subset of patients during the study time window often demonstrated mild or moderate progression of disease, as manifested by increasing extent and density of lung opacities.

View the PlumX article profile